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Today I'm going to be venturing into the roughest neighborhood in the whole of Romania. This neighborhood has a notorious reputation. I contacted many fixes asking them to take me into this neighborhood. Only one of them said they could do it. This neighborhood was originally built for construction workers during the communist era, but soon after was abandoned and illegal squatters moved in and took over big apartment blocks. It's now run by gangs and home to some of the hardest hitting scenes you'll see in Europe. Let's do this. Welcome to Bucharest in Romania. The second biggest parliament building in the world, second only to the Pentagon in the United States. Below this building, if you believe it or not,
is another third of its size with bomb shelters built to withstand the forces of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atomic bomb shelters. Pretty incredible stuff. But today we're going into one of the most deprived neighborhoods in all of Romania. It's a forgotten neighborhood. We have to be somewhat careful. I've just been picked up by a local guide here. He's telling me that we have to be very careful. People really do not like random people walking around and especially not with a camera and stuff. So, we're going to jump in the car, drive about 15 minutes from here, and we're going to be going into Fentari, a notorious neighborhood here in Romania.
Let's go. So, we've entered into Fair and Tari and some parts are quite nice and some parts are a bit more on the deprived side. We're entering the bit more of the deprived side now. So, we'll see what it's like, but um got to be quite careful. People are not the happiest with the camera, which is fair enough. You can take those. All right, guys. So, a bit of a situation is that basically it's like so intense to uh film. There's this one street we went down and there's just
people on all sides and uh very rough. We spoke to one guy and he said that it's like very dangerous to get the camera out here and uh it's for our protection. And if you get the camera, if you want to do it, do it. But it's your own decision risk. Yeah. And if they see the camera, they'll just smash it. Okay, so we just drove through like one of the roughest streets I've ever seen in Europe. Uh, and I've been to most European countries and to different neighborhoods in those countries. Um, and we did talk to a local guy and he said just don't uh even think about getting that camera out. Um, uh, because you it will get snatched out of your hand and it's guaranteed it will get
smashed and you have to know the clan bosses to operate in that area. But I put the drone up. You can see here some shots. So extremely rough, extremely deprived. It only seems to be one street though, which is quite interesting. And there's just people doing drugs in these absolutely decrepit Soviet era buildings. graffiti everywhere, trash and everything. Although there is an initiative to clean it up and apparently was significantly worse. I've actually traveled Romania reasonably extensively before I was doing filming and things back in 2014. I saw lots of different parts of Bucharest and back then it was significantly more rough. There were orphans living underground sniffing
glue, literally living in the heating ducks of the city outside the garden or train station. Uh I saw some very grim things. You can travel to the heart of the EU from the station in Bucharest, but there's another Romania underground. Coming down. This is the entrance to Bookucharest's underworld. By late afternoon, outside the station, they start to wake up, clambering up out of the ground, disoriented. This world underground, we're told, has an overlord, and you only go down by invitation. You okay? Yeah. It's the heat that hits you first. The camera lens steams up. Then the music kicks in.
These are the lost ones. The children spewed out by the old communist orphanages have had kids of their own. When Chiaoescu fell, there were nearly 50,000 of them. been brought to another section of this strange community like a hostel underground. Many like Bruce Lee, born in Shaoescu's notorious orphanages, for the equivalent of 50 p. He sells bags of a metallic paint called a synthetic drug similar to methadone is also on offer. He says we should meet the woman who looks after Nico with him. For that though, he says we have to go upstairs and out of the tunnels.
A high-profile raid on a section of Bookucharest's network of tunnels. Old heating ducks that double as drug dens. The self-styled king of the sewers known as Bruce Lee. the drug dealer king left sitting on the pavement for the cameras. A few weeks after our first visit, Catalina, a teenager we met down there, died of a drug overdose. We filmed as the people of the tunnels came up to pay their respects. Her drug dealer Bruce Lee was mourner and chief. Bruce Lee is more jester than king. The real criminal royalty here don't allow themselves to become minor media celebrities. Although it's shocking to see this, it is a story of progression
and success for Bucharest and Romania as a whole. after Romania joined the European Union, things started to get significantly better in terms of the quality of life and the standard of living. But yeah, we did get some pretty rough looks and one guy was uh pretty aggressive. One guy was really friendly. Uh you know, we're in this in these people's neighborhood and you know, who knows, they don't know our intentions, you know, so you can understand where they're coming from. There's a lot of Roma people living here and that's highly contentious topic in Europe, especially the further east you go. It's a marginalized group. Some people like them, some people definitely do not like
them. Leave you to do your own research and come to your own conclusions on that. Having lived in Hungary in the past myself, I know the uh societal response to a lot of this. I really did want to go into these buildings, but we asked a few people here and they just looked at us like we were crazy for even thinking of that. And many of the entrances to these buildings had no doors. A lot of windows were missing. And I looked inside and it was just flooded with rubbish everywhere. And I saw people doing drugs, sniffing metallic paint and glue. And my fixer that you'll meet in a second, I asked around many people, many fixers and guides in Romania. Most people refused to go into this neighborhood. And my
fixer here was the only one that was willing to go inside this neighborhood. That's how much of a bad reputation it has in Romania. I would have loved to interview people. We did ask a few people if they'd be interested in doing an interview. They said absolutely not. Again, they said if you get that camera out, it's going to be smashed. should probably get going because uh yeah, you don't want to stick around with a camera with a massive microphone on it like I'm doing for too long. The outskirts of that street are okay, but you know, it's still a bit rough, honestly speaking, but uh good to see the progression that Romania has made as a whole. And it's it's really nice to see um a European country uh clean up and
and progress like this, honestly speaking. Okay, so here we are with my right-hand man here in Bucharest, Radu. Hello. An absolute wealth of knowledge. Professor, right? Yes, that's right. An economist. A profession and economist. Right. And historian. And historian, of course. Right. And so, would you mind explaining a little bit about Fentari as a whole? Maybe a bit about its backstory and where it is now. When I graduated university, uh I had a small one room apartment right here in the area. But that area at that time was uh not for gypsies. Uh there were workers working to develop and to change the face of
Bucharest as you have seen there to the monster as a big palace. So there were started the day. Yeah, that's right. Many workers coming from other places not from Bucharest and in order to give them shelter they give that one room apartment to work in the construction. So that huge parliament building that we saw the second biggest in the world that was built in 6 years with 20,000 people working around the clock 20,000 per shift working and so that the workers that were shipped in from all over because you cannot do that in No six years of a building that large. No, no, nobody can do it. It covers a floor area of approximately 365,000 square m, stands 84 m tall. Its sheer weight is estimated at over 4 million tons. Construction began in 1984
under the orders of communist dictator Chiaoesco and was largely completed by 1997, though some sections remain unfinished. So basically, because there was so much construction going on and they shipped in people from not just internally domestically in Romania, but from all around Europe and probably even further a field, right? Sure. needed a place for them all to live. So, they built all these one-bedroom apartments and I'm sure at the time the conditions were okay, but then obviously it fell into disrepair and then it was kind of overrun and a lot of the buildings the apartments that we just saw there'll be squatters living in there. Right. That's right. That was uh not the
cleanest part of Bucharest that is not Romania because the condition are not according for a European country. I'm talking about a European country because Romania is in the center of Europe. 6 million Romanians live abroad and working there right now. Why? For the salaries. They were better paid. So they move from the area from here. So a community a huge community start to move and coming to Fentar because nobody wants to have them in the center. Romanians wants to have a clean country. So if you keep clean, they don't look the color of your skin. No, it's not that. We are not racist. We have a very good integration, but democracy means strict respect of the rules. And if all the Romanians are obliged to um respect the rules, also
the others must follow the same line. You've seen a massive change in this neighborhood, right? I mean it used to be like all these streets were very rough but now you know there's more opportunities maybe a bit more funding coming in and things then the it's just that one street that's kind of like the wild west right it depends of the how much you are integrated in the community uh we are now inferent but as you already filmed here it's uh it's a clean uh it's a clean area and look there because other where they receive tickets if you throw something from the street. But that remain the only one and they announce in the television they will try to do all the best to
clean to clean and ask them to leave in a decent conditions. Not because they are gypsies. Some people don't want to take a shower. I just want to take a quick second and say thank you to Cyber GhostVPN for sponsoring this video. In today's digital age, protecting your online privacy and security is absolutely crucial. One of the best ways to do so is to use a VPN, Cyber GhostVPN has you covered. It hides your IP address and encrypts your internet connection so you can enjoy an anonymous and private browsing experience. Not only will Cyber Gross mask the IP address on the sites you visit, it'll also enable you with a
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game consoles and smart TVs. If you're still not convinced, you can try it for a 45day period with a money back guarantee. So, you've really got nothing to lose and everything to gain. A massive thank you to Cyber Ghost VPN for sponsoring this video, supporting my work. And let's get back to it. From what I've seen, I've seen Romania over 10 years ago, and I can hardly recognize parts of Bucharest anymore. Absolutely. In a positive way. We are not talking about the politics. Mostly we are talking about the European integration and the Romanians wants to show that they are Europeans. We are in Europe but at the gates of the Orient.
We have many influence also from Turkey because Romania paid tribute until 1877 to the Turks. But change changed dramatically in the in 10 years changed very much. 25 years ago here was impossible to walk. Rubbish. rubbish and everything. Now they come the firemen and they wash everything who find because you cannot leave the street because the Romanians don't like to have a capital in this place. I'm talking about the majority from 18 million in all Romania. More than 2 million lives here in Bucharest and want to keep Bucharest clean. But we recognize we have that community that they did not accept to be judge in the court because they have their own judge. But now it's not possible. You are a
citizen here. So you have to obey to the regulation not to the stab. Stabore in gypsy means supreme judge of the community and they take the decision what to do even to cut a finger even to cut the tongue or something like that. That does not exist. We are in So Radu, where are we going now? We are going now in a place um in a village uh outside Bucharest not very far 10 miles only from the center of the city from the big civilization and where it's uh there is a strong and huge gypsy community. I can assure you that here if not 100% but uh more than 80% of the people living here belong to the gypsy ethnic group but they are quite integrated okay look at the their philosophy how to build the houses how
to build the houses now look there this is a real gypsy village here but look at those cars because it seems to be like Mercedes BMW these houses are so unique I've never seen anything like it. Is their culture all over the country because it's not only here all over the country. This is the style to show their manner of thinking. They are dressed in their uh typical costumes. It is very nice because it's a culture that the gypsy community belongs to uh Romanian uh to the Romanian culture. Okay. Different man uh look they are all gypsy langu uh ladies. Baktalu I said God bless you in Egyptian language and so what's the so in the where we came from in Ferentari on that main the center street there but is it dangerous here or it's a lot
safer here than in there right no it's safer you can leave the car here nobody will do anything oh the stalk all right can you explain a bit about the stalks that live on top of the power lines the stalks is something that people like very much because uh in a mystic way they believe that the Stark brings the babies. Look out for Mr. Stark that persevering to come along and drop a bundle in your lap. Here is a baby with eyes of blue straight from heaven right to you. Sign here please. But as a matter in fact the talks migrate from Europe uh to Africa in the end of September beginning of the October and stay where is warmer and coming back now in April. They cannot uh be in Italy.
They cannot be in Switzerland because they cannot fly over the seas and crossing very short distances on the water. So they across the Danube and then they go to Anatolia to Turkey and they the Suez channel and they arrive in Egypt and some of them they use the GPS. They put a GPS and a stalk make 5,500 kilometers to arrive to Tanzania. They arrive up to Tanzania. Yeah. That Tanzania. If the partner died, they will never look the female or something like that. So they're they'll only mate once with one partner. Life partner, right? Yeah. Life partner. All these houses here are Roma people. Yes. Vast majority. Most uh most of them rarely are Romanian, but the Romanian must make a compromise staying with them. It's not dangerous but to
accept each other but uh if they don't you don't accept their regulations. What are the regulations? The regulation and to keep quiet and to not say anything to the police. Hide the reality and uh whatever. What's the reality? Well the reality they make crimes but nobody recognize. What crimes are you referring to? I'm not talking about killing people. Exactly. crime committee stealing burning u um but stealing especially they their professionals to steal horses the government close the eyes and sometime don't ask them taxes but to keep clean other way it's a trouble for them
because they force him to clean and to wash and everything I don't know if that is racist But uh Romania as a European country must be clean. I think it's much better to be clean than stinking. So who lives in here? He's the owner of uh the football team. stawa and he say all his money all he his money comes from his prayer to the crucifix the Christ. So, we've come to a very upmarket neighborhood with some of the most insanely grand houses, financial engineering, making deals with the state. But this must be careful because I can be killed now with this democracy. I feel like that you're pointing towards corruption here in a roundabout way.
Yeah, corruption is all over the world. Let's not talk about that here. You have not the right to change the destination of a house that was rebuilt completely from zero. That house was rebuilt from zero. But the owner was obliged to preserve the old style, the old style of the of the building. Here used to lead the leaders of the communist party and now leaves those who killed the leaders of the communist party. They change only the color of their ties. And so you having grown up in Romania and lived through the Choesco years. Yeah, sure. Life is obviously significantly better now. Yes. Now I feel you don't have a full right to say your opinions. You mean in the world
generally you can't speak your mind. Yeah, that's right. So you've seen uh coming from a place with no freedom of speech and now you see in the west that there's a somewhat kind of a shunning of I try to understand what happened. Could you ever imagine back in the days of uh communism here that you would look to the west and have that opinion? Oh, everybody dreams for the west. Everybody wants to leave the country to go to the west because the oppression made by the communist by the communist was not so uh so easy. So now you're more positive of you see the future of Romania being a more positive one than that of certain western countries. Would you say that's a fair assessment? I hope so. You feel that way? Yeah.
So, we've come to central Bucharest and we're around these beautiful lakes here and lots of nice restaurants and, you know, people going about their day and a really beautiful city and I'm honestly lost for words of how much this place has changed for the better in the last decade. I was here in 2014 like I mentioned and you know it was an interesting place then and there were a lot of good sides but there was also a lot of quite hard-hitting poverty that neighborhood that we just went to at the start fentari it was much worse and even now you can see it's getting cleaner and soon that'll all be cleaned up really nice to see such positive changes I know there's still issues in politics as you know there
always will be everywhere but really nice to see how a city and a country can progress so drastically in just a 10
